


Timing

by HeyGoodLookin



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Drama, Feelings, Small joys, Wow, because for now it's only in my dreams, please make this scene a reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-29 09:06:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20961119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyGoodLookin/pseuds/HeyGoodLookin
Summary: Anne and Gilbert share a moment post season 3 ep 3.Lots of feelings.LOTS OF FEELINGS.





	Timing

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this be my first fic for this fandom y'all so here's hoping I didn't butcher it.   
Please let me know what you think and if you'd like to see more one-shots or maybe something more involved?   
Thanks so much!! <3

“I’m afraid you’ll leave me,” Gilbert's words were almost inaudible.

“Gil—“

“Everyone always does,” he continued desperately. He wasn’t good with words. He could speak, yes, sometimes quite boldly, but he didn’t have the gift to paint with words like Anne did.

“I won’t leave you. Friends don’t abandon each other.”

“You don’t know that,” Gilbert breathed. “Everyone in my life— everybody that I ever cared about— they always leave me. Everyone I’ve ever loved. It’s this dastardly pattern that seems to follow me everywhere and—“

“Gilbert!” Anne cried exasperated. “That’s simply not true!”

“Isn’t it?”

“You have Bash! And precious Delphine! And even Marilla and Matthew that care for you so very much,” Anne took a deep breath to steady her emotions. “And Jerry and Diana and all of your friends who love you.”

“Marilla and Matthew are your family, not mine. You—“

“And me.” Anne slid her hand across the table slowly so it brushed against his own.

“What?” Gilbert glanced up from his mug.

“And me,” Anne repeated for firmly. “I won’t leave you. Not if I can help it.”

“But you shut me out,” Gilbert hesitated. Their hands were so close. Just one shift and he could hold her hand in his own. “That day on the train.”

“I was being horrid.”

“There were other times too. Times I was afraid you were retreating into yourself. Getting lost in yourself.”

“It was the only way… before…” Anne murmured.

“At the orphanage?”

“And with the Hammonds,” Anne felt herself shiver at the memory. She didn’t want to speak of it, but there was something about the way Gilbert was looking at her. All desperate and tired, she knew what he needed now, above all, was honesty. “It was horrible there. I had to escape into myself. I had to imagine my way out of the world I was living in. I suppose… that’s why I insist on independence now. It’s the only way I can deal with adversities.”

“You could have told me,” Gilbert said softly. “You can always talk to me.”

“I’m sorry,” Anne looked up. “I do care for you Gilbert. A great deal. I never wanted to give you the impression that I didn’t care for you or your feelings, because I do. I promise you I do.”

“I care for you too, Anne. All I ever wanted to do is help.”

“I know that,” Anne blinked rapidly. _No,_ she simply couldn’t let her emotions get the better of her.

“They hurt you, didn’t they? The Hammonds,” Gilbert lowered his voice. He’d asked himself that question countless times. When he saw her flinch when someone brushed by her. Or when a certain word or tone of voice Billie used, caused her breath to become shallow and short. He’d even gone so far as to look in a book he’d seen at the doctor’s office. _Past trauma_ it had said.

Anne kept her head bowed and focussed on her tea. It took her a moment, but she finally nodded her head weakly. “Whenever I’d do something wrong or my work wasn’t good enough. There was always a reason why I deserved it.”

“No,” Gilbert put a firm hand over Anne’s. “You never did anything to deserve that.”

Anne slowly raised her head. “It could have been much worse.”

“Even so.”

“Gilbert, I won’t make you promises I can’t keep, but you have my word that I will never leave you without putting up all the fight I have in me.”

“Anne…”

“I care,” Anne whispered. “I know how it feels to love something and then have it torn away. I know how it feels to be afraid of losing what precious little you have. I know how it feels to be alone and want nothing more than to love and be loved.”

“Anne I… care about you too,” Gilbert hesitated slightly. Surly she could feel his palm sweating. Surly she could feel his pulse racing on his wrist. “But I wish things were different.”

“How do you mean?”

“I wish I wasn’t so tragic. I wish you weren’t trying so hard to find truths in your life. I wish we had the time to just focus on each other and…”

“And…?”

“What I feel for you, Anne… it’s more than just caring. It’s more than just friendship. I just wish I had the time to make sense of it all.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

“I do,” Anne replied softly. “I know what I feel for you is different from anything I’ve ever felt before, but I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what it means.”

“I’m sorry,” Gilbert said, giving her hand a light squeeze. “I’m sorry things can’t be easier.”

“Me too.”

“Anne?”

“Yes?”

Gilbert stood up from the table and, through their connected hands, brought Anne up with him. “Do you mind if we…?” he extended his other arm out hesitantly, but Anne hardly left him enough time to breath. She launchd herself into his arms and wrapped her own around him fiercely. Without their winter coats on she could feel the warmth radiating off his body. She could feel his heart beat— solid, warm, and alive. There pressed against her by the fire.

“I should go,” Anne murmured against his chest. She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to leave his arms _at all._ Instead of stepping away, her words seemed to prompt Gilbert to rub soothing circles around her back. _Oh,_ she sniffed, _why hadn't she noticed she’d been crying._ Gilbert must have felt her defiance. Perhaps felt her tense in his arms. He rocked them slowly and shushed her.

“It’s alright, Anne,” he whispered. “It’s alright to cry.”

“I’m not sad, it’s just…”

“Everything,” Gilbert finished gently. “I know.”

Anne glanced up at him and noticed a tear fall down his own face. “I am so sorry about everything Gil.”

“Sometimes I wish I could take all this hurt away. I wish I could erase all the horrors in your past and give you something real. I wish I could tell you about your parents and build you a house by the ocean and give you the world you’ve always dreamed of,” Gilbert breathed the words into Anne’s hair. Slowly, he pulled away so their he could look at her. Her eyes fairly sparkled. “I should take you home.” He pressed a feather light kiss to her forehead.

“You don’t have to,” Anne managed, her voice cracking as he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

“It’s past 10:00 and Bash is asleep. We can’t have Marilla thinking you’re here unchaperoned,” Gilbert couldn’t help but chuckle.

“The scandal!’ Anne grinned.

“We’d never live it down.”

“Gilbert?” Anne flushed as the broke apart.

“Yes?”

“I saw Diana and Jerry kissing in the barn today.”

There was a pause.

And then glorious laughter.

“Jerry’s had her eye on her for years.”

Anne’s eyes widened. “Please don’t tell anyone. I just simply had to tell someone, but Diana would be ever so hurt if she found out I’d been gossiping.”

“You have my word,” Gilbert smiled.

Anne smiled back. “Thank you.” 


End file.
